Over the past couple of weeks, the Ice Bucket Challenge has gone viral online. It involves filming or photographing yourself having a bucket of ice-cold water thrown over you, then nominating other people to take part in the challenge. Phil Schiller of Apple is one of the most high profile execs to take part so far, and T-Mobile’s very own John Legere and Mike Sievert have taken the challenge. And then followed it up by challenging other carrier CEOs to do the same.
Now this isn’t just some silly social media experiment like Neknomination, a challenge where idiots filmed each other downing alcoholic beverages for no reason whatsoever. The purpose of the Ice Bucket Challenge is to raise awareness for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
If you’ve watched it, you’re encouraged to donate to ALSA.org or just spread the word. Those of a more cynical nature may doubt that doing this benefits the charity at all, but, between July 29th and August 12th this year the ALS Association has raised an incredible $4 million, that’s almost 4 times the amount it raised in the same period last year.
You can read more about the challenge on the ALSA page.